The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

Mag looked upon him, her whole body solid and unmoving as a rock.

“They took the camp by surprise,” said Nikau in his smooth, liquid voice. “The first we knew of the attack was when an arrow struck someone running by. As they died, they fell upon Dryleaf and knocked him to the ground. He hit his head on a log. As soon as Orla and I realized what was going on, we carried him into the wagon, and we have been here ever since. The attackers left us alone.”

“Thank the sky,” I said. “How long has he been asleep?”

“Not long,” said Orla quietly. She brushed her slim, pale fingers against his cheek. “He stayed awake a long while. We had some dreamwine, and we gave him as much as he could stomach to help with the pain of his wound. He ….” She fell to silence.

“He what?” snapped Mag. Orla recoiled, and Mag sighed and bent her head. “Forgive me. What were you going to say?”

“He kept asking for the three of you,” said Nikau. “He was afraid, and he kept asking us what was happening, but we did not know what to tell him.”

Orla began to weep.

Just then, Dryleaf stirred and started to come awake. His hands reached out, grasping. Nikau took one of his hands, and Orla clasped the other where it came to rest on her dress, stroking the back of his gnarled old fingers.

“Mag,” moaned Dryleaf. “Albern. Yue. Where are they?”

“We are here, Dryleaf,” I said. “We came back.”

Dryleaf burst into tears. “Oh, thank the sky,” he said, almost whispering. “Where are you? I cannot tell, your voices, they …” Tears took the rest of his words, and he shook in Nikau’s smoothly muscled arms.

I looked around at the lovers in the wagon. “May I—?”

“Of course,” said Nikau. He motioned for the rest of them to clear some space, and I clambered into the wagon at once. Yue followed more slowly, but then we were there, and Dryleaf clutched our hands, gripping us as if he wished never to let us go again. There was not enough room for her in the wagon, but Mag stood at the back, reaching in and holding Dryleaf’s leg so that he would know she was there as well.

“We came as soon as we realized what had happened,” I said softly. “I am so sorry we left.”

“I was afraid you had fallen,” said Dryleaf, holding tightly to my hand. “I thought they had killed you all before they came and attacked us. I could not tell where they had come from, not after I fell.”

“We are fine,” said Yue. “They fled from us and circled around to come after you, the cowards.”

Dryleaf said nothing, but only kept weeping, holding on to both of us. Yue looked up at the lovers.

“We can take him now,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Yes, thank you from the bottom of all our hearts,” I said. “Nothing we could do would ever repay you.”

“We would never let harm befall him,” said Nikau. “He is a treasure.”

“He is that,” I said.

Yue bent and scooped him up in her mighty arms. Careful as a mother holding her babe, she carried him out of the wagon, while Dryleaf clung to her. Mag moved woodenly out of the way. As Yue walked with Dryleaf to his tent, Mag stared at both of them, unmoving. With a final murmur of thanks, I left the lovers and went to her.

“Mag, this was not your fault,” I said.

“Oh?” said Mag. “You told me that in Northwood, and I knew it was true then. I do not think it is true now.”

“We could not know that Kaita had found a way to—”

“Of course we could have known,” said Mag. “Or we could have guessed, or prepared for the worst. We thought—no, I will stop hiding behind that coward’s lie—I thought she was mine for the taking. Like an animal I merely had to put down. I was so focused, so foolish, that I forgot she has a cunning mind and a will to match ours. I was the one who alerted the Shades to the fact that we knew where they were hiding. I led Kun’s force away from the camp. Dark below, Albern, I was the one who brought Dryleaf on this fool’s errand, when he clearly has no place amid a war.”

A shiver passed through me. She had reminded me of something—a truth that now pressed itself upon me with an urgent, frantic need.

“Mag. We have to go.”

Yue had set Dryleaf down while she tried to recover what she could of his possessions. Now she looked up at me. “Go? What do you mean, go?”

“I mean leave,” I said. “We have to. We have no choice. Kun will blame us for this. And he will … he will be right to do so. But Mystic justice … I will not submit myself to that. Yue, I am so sorry.”

Yue shook her head—not in defiance, but slowly, like a bear trying to clear the cobwebs of winter after waking in the spring. “But I … but the law. The King’s law.”

“Please, Yue,” I begged. “Nothing you did tonight was evil enough to deserve what Kun will do to you. Please do not submit yourself to it.”

“Let me stay,” said Mag. “It was me. I pulled both of you along with me. I practically forced you to go. Let me stay. The three of you leave, and let me take the punishment.”

“No, Mag,” I snarled. “If you will use guilt to connive me into coming along on your schemes, then I will use guilt to force you to flee with me when they go awry. We promised, until the end of the road. You forced me into those caves on that promise. Now I will force you to flee because of it. If you stay, I stay. We run together, or not at all.”

Mag’s jaw set. But she would not consign Yue